More Word Count Fluff

The first week of NaNoWriMo. You came in with a strong start. The words are flowing. Your story is flowing from your mind like the Amazon River during the rainy season. Nothing can stop you now. Your word count is off the charts. You’ve never had it so good.

Stop.

(Patiently waiting for the screams of protest to die down a little.)

I’m not telling you to stop writing. I value my life far too much.  What I am suggesting is to make you write more, not less. Something I’ve learned over my 17+ years of NaNoWriMo is not to rush the story. Yes, you want to get that first draft written. You want to get that word count. What I’m offering is a way to do both.

For example, let's look at the following bit:

He opened the door and rushed into the room.

That was good for 9 words. It jumps you right into the next scene. But instead, why not expand on it? This is where you can draw in on the five senses. Lets try this again.

His hand curved around the cold metal knob of the door. He took a deep breath, the musty scent of old wood stinging his nose, even as he could see the wood of the door splintering from age. He pushed it open and rushed ahead as dust seemed to billow around him to hold him back.

Same concept, but expanded. And 56 words instead of 9. Three of the five senses used. Sight, smell and touch.

You don’t need to rush your story. Take the time to tell it. The more you add, the better your word count.

Quantity is important. It doesn't matter if you edit it all out later. What matters is telling your story. Enrich the story in your own mind. Add sensation. And most importantly, enjoy the experience of telling your story. That is after all why you’re a writer, isn’t it?

NaNoWriMo Word Count Fluff

During NaNoWriMo 2016 I ran into a problem. I had finished the story I intended to write. But I still had 2 days to go and I hadn’t hit 50,000 words. In the past I would write another scene that would be in the book, but this time, I creatively had nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. My mind had become a blank wasteland with tumbleweeds that were laughing at me. After panicking and having a meltdown, I came up with something to write to get me to the finish line. The following is what I wrote. A view of my usual workday with a twist.

-------

Abigail Morningstar unlocked the door to her office on a bitterly cold November morning. As she stepped inside it was still cold since the heat had been lowered to sixty-two degrees over the weekend to conserve energy. Abigail found coming to work on a Monday morning to be somewhat unwelcoming. The cold slate gray skies did little to improve her mood. It was already going to be a long and miserable day.

Rattling the cages, she woke up the hamsters who were lying cuddled together in a tight and warm bundle. The furry little creatures poked out their heads and glared at her. With reluctance, they uncurled and waddled into their individual wheels and started their run for the day.

Abigail had barely settled down with her first cup of tea when the phone rang. She set down her cup and picked up the headset.

“Good morning, thank you for calling Gormogon Incorporated, this is Abigail, how may I help you?” she said in a falsely cheerful voice.

“Uh yeah,” the male voice said. “Where do I send my payments?”

Maintaining her upbeat tone with effort, she answered. “Please mail all payments to Gormogon Incorporated, thirty two oh two Cuthshaw Blvd, Richview, Virginia, two three two two four. Please make all checks payable to Gormogon Incorporated.”

“Uh… thanks,” the man said. “What if my payment is a little late?” he asked.

Abigail rolled her eyes. Did they think she worked for free? “If payment is not received within thirty days, a gremlin will be sent to your residence. An additional gremlin will be sent for each month your payment is late for a total of twelve gremlins. If payment is still not received, poltergeists will be sent following the same schedule.”

The man gulped audibly. “Uh… okay,” he said. “Errr, thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” she said. “Have a nice day.” She hung up the phone.

There had been cases where clients had managed with one or two gremlins. By the time they hit the third gremlin, they were paying with interest. Anything to get rid of the gremlins.

One of the gremlins under discussion climbed up on her desk wearing an overcoat and heavy boots with a jaunty little hat on his head.

“Is he late?” he asked in his piping little voice.

“I’d have to check the files,” Abigail replied. “Are you bored?”

“Nah,” he replied. “Just cold. Those hamsters take forever to get the heat going this time of year. You should get one of those mechanical furnaces.”

Abigail shrugged. “Boss says hamsters, we use hamsters,” she replied. “He makes the rules.”

“And the lion share of the money, Abs,” the gremlin commented. “You really should ask for a raise. “

Abigail shrugged again. “I’m leaving at the end of Yule,” she said. “No point arguing about the money he’s never gonna pony up.”

“Well, we’ll certainly miss you here,” the gremlin said, its lips turned down in a pout.

Abigail smiled. “I’ll miss some of you guys as well,” she said.

The phone rang again, and she picked up the handset. “Good morning, Gormogon Incorporated, this is Abigail, how may I help you?” she said.

“Hi Abby, it’s Tracy,” a woman’s voice said over the phone.

Abigail rolled her eyes and the gremlin snickered. “Hi Tracy, how are you?” she asked.

“Oh, I’m fine,” Tracy said. “I need to know when we’re getting a delivery this week?”

“Hold on, let me see if I can pull it up really quick,” Abigail replied.

She spun her hand over the crystal ball and pinks and purples began to swirl inside it. Little streaks of red lightning showed up which made her frown. She turned back to the phone.

“Tracy, when did you put your order in?” she asked.

“Oh, I haven’t put it in yet,” Tracy replied airily. “I just need to know when the delivery is coming.”

Abigail took a deep breath before she let it out just as slowly. “Tracy, we can’t schedule a delivery until your order is in the system,” she said patiently. “As soon as we know what you need, then we can see how quickly we can get it to you.”

“Oh,” Tracy said. “I suppose that does make sense doesn’t it,” she continued. “I am going to need cherry blossom….”

“Cherry blossoms are seasonal, Tracy,” Abigail said. “We only ship that in the spring.”

“You people should really invest in providing those year-round,” Tracy said sounding wise.

Abigail’s face contorted in her irritation as the gremlin, laughing hysterically, rolled off the corner of her desk.

“All our products are one hundred percent natural, Tracy,” Abigail said. “Force grown plants have only a quarter of the magical energies.”

“That’s a very good point,” Tracy conceded as if Abigail hadn’t told her the same thing repeatedly over the last two years. “Oh well, I do need to place an order.”

Abigail kept her voice controlled and upbeat. “Are you going to enter it yourself?” she asked.

“Could you just take it?” Tracy asked.

“Of course,” Abigail said. “Give me a sec to get an order form.”

Abigail quickly snapped her fingers twice and a fairy dragon bearing pen and parchment appeared and dropped them on her desk. She blew a kiss to the dragon, smoothed out the paper, and prepared to write. Her boss tended to call them Ferry dragons.

“All right,” she said. “What can I get for you, Tracy?”

“A case of Rosemary, two bags of Russian sage, German thyme,” the woman said seeming to just be guessing what she needed. “Is the basil still in season?”

“We have some left but that’ll be the last of it until spring,” Abigail replied.

“I’ll take a bag of that,” Tracy said. “I think that’s all.”

“Do you need chives?” Abigail asked. Tracy always needed chives and always forgot to order them.

“No, I think I have enough,” Tracy said.

“Okay,” Abigail replied. That was Tracy code for ‘I’ll call back in two days for an emergency order of chives I should have ordered when you asked me.

“Thank you so much, Abigail,” Tracy said.

“You’re quite welcome, Tracy,” Abigail replied. “Have a nice day.” She hung up before Tracy turned the conversation about what her grandson Steve was doing for Christmas this year.

On top of the filing cabinet, the fairy dragon was preening, its wings fluttering iridescent under the fluorescent lights.

The hamsters in their wheels had finally gotten the office temperature up to sixty-eight degrees and Abigail had finally taken off her gloves when her boss, Ronald strolled into the office around ten am. She looked up and plastered a smile on her face.

“Good morning,” she said.

He smiled back oblivious to her fake cheer. “Good morning Abigail,” he said. “Anything come in?”

“Just the usual,” she replied. “Tracy ordered her supplies.”

“Which Tracy?” he asked as he kept walking back to his office.

Abigail sighed, picked up her notebook, and followed him back as she usually did. “Tracy at the Silver Center,” she said. “Not Tracy with the Pagan Sisterhood.”

“That’s right,” he said. “It’s Silver Center week to order.”

“Every two weeks,” Abigail replied. She wondered, as she often did if he ever listened to himself talk.

“It should be a slow week,” Ronald said.

Abigail parked her face in neutral. The last slow week they had was two years ago. She didn’t say anything as Ronald kept talking as he set up his crystal ball.

“Do you think you can work on my crystal ball today?” he asked.

“I’ll try,” she replied, as she always did. “Same issues?”

“I can’t get my mail again,” he said.

“Mystic snakes are temperamental,” Abigail said. Of course, Ronald always managed to annoy them so it was no surprise his mail delivery was questionable. She never had a problem with her mail because she treated them with respect.

“And my CB 10 is acting up,” he said referring to the latest crystal ball upgrade.

“I’ll take a look at it,” Abigail said, as she always did.

“CB 7 was just fine,” he continued to complain. “I don’t know why they had to change it.”

Abigail said nothing. There was no point. If CB 7 had been so fine, he shouldn’t have upgraded. Why did he upgrade to CB 10? Because it was free. As the warehouseman, George said, Ronald would spend five cents to make a penny.

“I’ll get back to working on the inventory,” Abigail said. Anything to escape his presence for a few precious moments. Without waiting she fled back to her office.

The gremlins were dancing on her desk when she got back to the front office. She heard the roaring of a truck engine which could only mean that George was back from his first deliveries. She heard the sound of foul language as George argued with the dragon where the engine would be. From the sounds of it, he was losing badly. Again.

A moment later he stumbled into the office and handed over the paperwork from the deliveries. “You got a backorder on the bee balm again,” he said.

“You didn’t take the bee balm?” Abigail asked. “Why not?

“Hoffs didn’t have any in stock,” George replied.

Abigail sighed. “Marvelous,” she said. She took the paperwork and handed it to one of the gremlins to mark as delivered.

“Did Ronald pick up the mouthwash yet?” George asked.

Abigail leaned over her desk and yelled. “RONALD! MOUTHWASH!”

There was a moment of silence and then, “IN THE BACK OF THE VAN!”

Abigail looked at George. “That answer your question?” she asked.

George mumbled something Abigail suspected was a curse of some kind and then he shook off his irritation. “Do you want to label the bottles for the body elixir while I mix it up?” he asked.

Abigail gave him a look. “Do I want to stand in a freezing warehouse to stick plastic labels on gallon jugs for an hour?” she asked. “Seriously? You think that’s something I want to do?”

George just chuckled. It wasn’t the first time she nailed him over his choice of words. “Okay then, will you help me by labeling bottles?”

Abigail sighed. She wondered what would happen if she just said no. She was always helping George, but he wasn’t much help to her. She wasn’t going to let him anywhere near her crystal ball.

“Fine,” she said. “How many cases do you need?”

“Twenty-one,” George said promptly. “I need to build inventory for the witch convention next week.”

Abigail did the mental calculation. Four gallons per case times twenty-one cases was eighty-four. “Do you need labels too?”

“If you don’t mind,” George said.

Would it matter if she did? “Okay, when do you need me?” she asked.

“In about ten minutes I’ll be ready for you,” George said. He grinned at her and walked out. She heard him yell at the dragon in the van and it snarled something rude back.

Abigail dropped into her chair and brushed aside one of the gremlins that had fallen asleep after dancing during the conversation she had with George. She saw one of the mystic snakes slither by on its way to Ronald’s office. Apparently, he had temporarily appeased them and was getting his mail. That would keep him busy for a while and out of her hair until he pissed them off again.

Sometimes she really hated her job.

What Is A Trope?

As I’ve wandered deeper into the writing community and learning about writing. Occasionally I come

across terminology that is unfamiliar. Most of the time, I don’t ask for an explanation. I just pretend I know what everyone else is talking about. Most of the time I can fake it pretty successfully. But then, I do write fiction after.

Which brings me to a word I’ve seen here and there.

Trope.

What is a Trope?

Well… that’s a really good question. So naturally I had to do some research on the subject. 

To start with, the origin of the word comes from the Greek “tropos” which means direction or way. Of course there is more to the etymology of the word, but if you want to know more, there are plenty of resources on the internet to find it. 

There are a number of definitions of the word. Just as there are a number of different types of tropes. Some tropes are bundled under even other classifications.

For example, for the sake of simplicity: Literary Tropes, Movie Tropes, and TV Tropes. You can take it even further such as Fantasy Tropes, Dystopian Tropes, etcetera. Once I got to this point, I started to get that little stress crease between my brows that usually means I’m struggling to maintain interest.

Let’s wander over to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. That should make it simpler, right? First definition is “: a word or expression used in a figurative sense:” Figure of Speech. So let's wander over to the second definition “: a common or overused theme or device :” CLICHÉ.

I think we’re getting closer to understanding what a trope is. At least I am. I hope. What it comes down to is a Plot Device. Something you see in different genres or media. Something that is used over and over again. In some cases, so often, it’s easy to guess how the story will end or at least what the general plot will be.

Let’s try some examples of tropes. Since I write paranormal mystery/romance, let’s see what the common tropes are in that.

The Paranormal Investigator: This person investigates a supernatural crime of some sort. In television it would be shows like X-Files or Night Stalker or Supernatural.

I See Dead People: This person can see ghosts that others can or cannot interact with. The ghosts may deeply impact their lives or just hang around as a weird roommate.

Soul Bonds: These people are fated to be together. Their destiny is to fall in love and no one else will do it for them. Even if they hate each other at first.

Now this is not to say tropes are bad. They aren't. They can be used effectively to create a good story. After all, the X Files was on television for years.

Which tropes do you see over and over? And which ones do you hate?

Don't Panic!

Last week I freaked out. I mean, I had a serious writer’s meltdown. It included tears and despair and hopelessness. Actually a lot of tears. (I cry at commercials.) I was reading through the rough draft of the climatic scene of my 3rd book.

A friend who is always honest with me, delicately pointed out that it was…. (cringe) FLAT.

He was being kind. It was pure crap. Horrible. Messy. It had as much tension as a broken piece of yarn. And short. Depressingly short. And I had no idea how to fix it. Or even if it could be fixed.

Thus, the meltdown of epic proportions. I wasn’t a writer. I was a fraud. Flop. Amateur. I sucked. Everything I did, sucked. And sucked in the worst possible way.

This isn’t the first time I’ve gone through this. Nor am I the first writer to go through this. I’m pretty sure there are some very popular and prolific writers out ther that go through this morass of depressing self doubt.

Now, this is not to be confused with Writer’s Block. That’s another little monster that will get its own post someday. 

But, guess what? It’ll pass. There are important things you need to remember as you dry your tears: ALL first drafts suck. If anyone tells you differently, they are lying or delusional. The first draft is nothing more than a skeleton. The foundation of your story. The crucial starting point, not the end product.

This is what I did. After sobbing for a number of hours and exhausting myself. I forced myself to read it again. Yeah, it was still pretty disappointing, but I realized something important. I was still okay with the WHAT happens. It was the HOW that sucked. The framework was there. I just needed to give it some life. 

I was looking at two thousand words in desperate need of help. I broke the action down by what takes place and in what order. I realized I left a lot of things out. There was no description of where the action was taking place. No internal dialog from the characters. No details of the action itself. Just a list of things that happen.

Once I realized I had to build on what was already there (and pay homage to the grammar monkey), I was able to calm down. So those two thousand words became five thousand. The tension leading to the action was hyped up. The tension I felt I was able to inject into expanding on what I had already written. 

I was able to fix it. I’m also feeling a whole lot better with the result. So don’t panic. You’ll know if you

need to fix it or replace it. Let the emotion you feel out and then dive back in and take care of your darling. After all. YOU are the Writer. This is your story, your world. You RULE!

Interview with the Grumpy Author

Writing is work. It takes effort to mute all the outside distractions in order to spend time in that glorious inner world where everything goes according to your plan. But there are times when the outside world fuels that inner world and the oddest things happen. The world takes on more depths. This of course would be fine if that author was full of sunshine and light.

Allow me to introduce to you Ms. Grumpy T. Author. Her normal job has been customer service in a variety of fields, often dealing with the public at its worst. This prolific writer of dozens of unpublished novels recently agreed to sit down at my desk to fume and grouse and distract me from my world of sunshine and light. While I’m sure she has reason for her given name, she can be something of a distraction. So to deal with her, I decided to do an interview. Fortunately she was willing to go along with it.

----

Me: Thanks for taking the time to speak to me today.

GA: Why not? You have coffee.

Me: Yes… well… let's talk about your writing habits.

GA: (inhaling a huge mug of coffee) My habit isn’t writing. My habit is plotting something painful for the people in my life.

Me: Uh… Well, there has been a question about the number of murders that occur in your novels. Why so many..

GA: I don’t know. Why do so many people piss me off during the day?

Me: Are you always so grumpy?

GA: Nah. I wake up first. Then someone opens their mouth and here I am.

Me: Seriously though. The deaths of the victims in your stories are pretty horrific. Why is that?

GA: The victimology is dependent on how much the real person annoyed me. You can tell how much I get annoyed as no one dies peacefully in their sleep.

Me: Even your villains die horribly.

GA: Can’t salvage a sociopath.

Me: Do you ever see something of yourself in your characters?

GA: Yeah… sometimes I’m the sociopath.

Me: Do you think, therefore, your characters can redeem you from your murderous ways? Will one of them demand to be spared?

GA: Oh please, just be thankful I leave the heroes alive.

Me: (clears throat) So… Do you enjoy the detail that you put into your stories?

GA: Well…. Yeah. I mean, if you’re going to write a serial killer, you have to pay attention to detail in order to remain consistent throughout the story.

Me: Then is it important to have connections between your heroes and villains?

GA: (frowns) Well, duh. I mean if there was no connection, then why would the hero bother to stop him? I mean seriously… 

Me: So, for clarification, what is the difference between a villain and a henchman?

GA: (snorts) The easy answer? They die first. 

Me: Uh…

GA: Oh come on. If it wasn’t for the henchmen making stupid mistakes, the villain would be able to get away with what he does. I don’t do much with henchmen. Rookie mistake to add them.

Me: Um, okay then. Moving on. Are there benefits of recurring villains?

GA: Why not ask me a hard question? That’s easy. I don’t have to make up a new guy in every book. (shrugs) Although I suppose he has to get caught eventually. (feral smile) Though very useful in creating a series of books.

Me: Well, thanks Ms. Author. That’s all the time we have today. It’s been an interesting experience talking to you.

GA: Heh. This was fun. What’s your name again? I need another victim.

Me: (swallows hard)

Kill Your Darlings

Kill Your Darlings. This is a recent phrase I’ve heard from other authors in the twitterverse. It took me a bit to realize what it meant. Then I realized it's the same as when I say Eviscerate Your Baby. Just less gruesome.

The editing process is a battle. Grammar is only part of it. Consistency is a huge part of the story. Characters, scenes, locations, world rules. Ever get lost in your writing and then forget what color eyes your main character has? I’ve had the main character go through three different eye colors without explanation. 

This is an important part of the writing process, although when you do it is up to you. If you are a Planner, you’ve likely written bios, description of locations and all the world building steps there are. In your case, if you change something as you’re writing, you make notes in your files.

For a Pantser, like me, it’s a lot tougher. We let the ideas just flow out, if we’re lucky, and that’s where we run into problems. Like eye color. Staying consistent during the first draft is not only tricky, but a challenge to the writing process.

So, how do you keep track of everything? A mass of post-it notes on every surface? Don’t you wish you had a wiki to keep everything organized? Guess what? There is something that can help. Zim - A Desktop Wiki. A friend recommended this site to me and I have been using it ever since. 

Zim gives you a place to make notes as you go along and maintains that consistency you need without interrupting your writing process. It’s also great for keeping track of those terms that are unique to your own writing. 

For example, in my Section Seven Case Files series, I have people who are capable of magic called Magum. As I write, I have to develop what they can and cannot do. Making notes in Zim as I go along leaves me free to finish the first draft. It became a key component when I go through the 2nd draft of the book to maintain the consistency.

How do you keep track of your novel’s world and rules? Comment below.

The Casting Couch

You’re starting your book. You’ve worked out the plot, the main characters have names, and you have a general idea what they look like. Or do you?

Some authors have the ability to mentally see what their character looks like in precise detail. That little mole under the left eye. The long eyelashes unfairly given to a man. The tiny scar she has on the edge of her collarbone. The way the hair grows back from her brow.

Unfortunately, I’m not that good at that. I generally manage hair color, eye color, and probably height. I get stuck on coming up with details beyond that. I can’t mentally see them beyond a vague blur of their features.

I flip the idea sideways to make it work for me. If this was a movie, who would I cast in the role of the main character. Then bang (!) I have a clear image of what my character looks like and some physical traits which I can modify depending on my plot needs.

Let me give you an example of how that worked for me.

In the book Watching Shadows - Book 1: Paranormal Shadows I had the character of Tyler Buchanan. I knew the kind of person he was and that he had a quirky sense of humor and charm. But for his physical description… Vague is the word. Until I saw him on television. More precisely, I saw him on MacGyver. Richard Dean Anderson became the physical template of Tyler Buchanan. I aged him a little, put a few gray hairs at his temple and suddenly he became easier to write and describe. His personality settled right in with a perfect fit.

I did the same with other characters in the story. Evan Richardson is Ben Browder. Alonsa Matthews was physically based on Holly Marie Combs.

Now that being said, I realize that how I see my characters and how a reader will see them in their mind's eye are two very different things. This is just my process on one aspect of my novel writing. I pin their pictures to the wall while I’m writing.

Of course there were times I looked at Tyler and said “What is wrong with you?”

So how do you come up with your character looks? Comment below.

Your Writing Goals

A new year and have you made any resolutions? Are they the same ones you made last year? How about the year before? I see you squirming in your seat. The resolution game always starts out with excitement and then a week later they are either put aside or forgotten and the year continues on.

Depressing isn't it? Especially if you want to publish your novel. Every year I say "I'm going to publish." Every year it doesn't happen. Why? I allow distractions to pull me away from what my goal is. I don't have time. Or, I don't have the money. There is always something in the way. Something I allow to get in the way.

New year. New resolution? No. This year I'm not making a resolution. This year I am making goals. The reason I changed my thinking was due to a free webinar I listened to last night. I recommend reading what this man has to say. Michael Hyatt is someone I have found that actually inspires me to do better.

So I'm writing down my Goals. Number one: publish in 2016. Now this is where it gets interesting. That goal is vague and undefined. Not very actionable, is it. So this is where the productivity training comes in. I need to drill down and figure out what steps I need to make this happen.

So here is another link for you. Just so you know what steps you need to take and how to set them up. Joel Friedlander has an online book planner that will help you do just that. Definitely worth the money to subscribe. The Book Planner is a great site to keep you going. My biggest problem has always been "What to do when?".  This site gives you a lot of hand holding.

This is just the beginning. This year, lets make this happen.

Those links again:
 Michael Hyatt
The Book Planner

Now I'm off to get back to work. :)

What are you Planning to do?

NaNoWriMo - To Panic or Not To Panic

I see you out there. Sneaking into the Halloween candy with furtive motions as you contemplate tomorrow. Tomorrow. November 1st. All Saint's Day. El Dia de los Muertos. National Bison Day.

Great big scary, ain't it?

Whether you're new at it or a veteran, Day one is one of the worst days. Whatever time you sit down to start the next Great Novel, you all have to face the same thing. 

That first blank page.

How do you start? You type Chapter One. Your word count is now a rocking two. Your mind starts to swirl and cramp. Where to start. How to craft that first sentence that hooks the reader. 


BUZZZZZZTTT!!!!!!


Now that you've wasted a couple hours of your life along with inhaling several pounds of leftover Halloween candy, take a step back. Take a deep breath. There, that's better.

The advice you'll hear about how to start will go along the lines of: Just write something. It doesn't matter what. That kind of advice tends to not to be much help to me. I need more help than that. If you're reading this then, like me you'll need a little more help too.

So, how to start. 

Tip #1: You've been thinking about this book for a while. Scenes have been swirling around your head all through the month of October. Stop worrying about where your novel starts. Write the scene that has been in your head. Start there. You can worry about where it goes in December.

Tip#2: The first words you write are: It was a dark and stormy night.
Now write why your character is thinking that. Is it a dark and stormy night or a bright and sunny day? Are they on a planet or out in space? Why would they think that line. As you write you'll find the ideas start to flow and you can transition to where you want your story to go.

Example:

      "It was a dark and stormy day. Hunter Reid glanced up at the cloudy sky and frowned. It would be darkfall soon and he was no where near where he had planned to camp for the night. Thanks to a landslide that had blocked part of the sixfor, Hunter would now have to find another route to Orange. And it didn’t look as if he would be making his usual overnight spot before the mists started. There was nothing more miserable than trying to sleep in the mists. It seeped into everything and made everything colder. "

Excerpt from Orpheus Rising

That was how I started NaNoWriMo 2005. It's my usual go to when stuck.

So what are your tricks for starting a new novel? Let me know in the comments below.

NaNoWriMo Tips & Tricks

So, it's halfway through November and you've been banging away at your story. Your words flow, the story unfolds, your word count is on target and then..... nothing.

Writer's Block. There are those who say Writer's Block doesn't really exist, but I disagree. The imaginary voices in your head stop talking. Your characters are sitting around staring at you, waiting for you to tell them what to do.

You're stuck. You need to keep writing. The advice from others is... write. It doesn't matter what you write. Write anything.

I have always found that little bit of advice useless. How many times can you write "All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy" without beating your head on the wall.

These little tricks I've used are for when you've stopped banging your head and you've stepped outside and taking a deep breath. These little tips are also wonderful for word count.

Last but not least, these are suggestions you are free to ignore once you finish reading this post. I won't be offended. Really. I promise.

1. The Coffee/Tea Ruse: Chose your primary or secondary character for this. Have them make coffee/tea the same way you do. Detail every single step of the process. Pour the water. Measure the grounds/tea leaves. How much water. How much coffee/tea. What do they think about while it brews? Coffee/tea done? They pour it into a cup. How do they take it? Black? Cream and sugar? How much of each? They take it to the kitchen table? Or do they go outside? Do they sit on a chair or on the top step of the porch?They sit down and take a sip.

The above was 100 words. Now image how many words you'd get if you filled in the blanks. When I do this, the character is thinking during the process of either what happened or what is going to happen. I often get sparked with an idea for another scene or other interaction and I'm off again.

2. The Song & Dance Routine: Chose a character at random. Then pick your favorite song. It can be a current pop song you've been humming the last couple days. Don't stress on which song. If you're stuck on that, turn on the radio and chose whatever song is playing.

Now, your character has to sing. It doesn't matter how badly or how well they sing. Not only do they sing it, but they have to act it out. If you chose more than one character, they they have to dance together for the duration of the song. When they are done, the bow to the applause of the Ninja Hamsters. Where did the Ninja Hamsters come from? Let your characters ask that question. You don't have to give them a valid answer.

I've used the second method myself. In one of my earlier science fiction NaNo attempts. I had the characters break into a rendition of "I'm Just A Sweet Transvestite" from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. In a world where women are rare, that wasn't completely out of place. I got almost 1,000 words out of that scene.

3. The Sex Scene: I include this because I know a lot of writers will use this when they are stuck. It doesn't matter if it's appropriate or not. Just detail it out.I don't use this method myself since sex scenes are as hard for me to write as action scenes.


These are just a few ideas to help you along with NaNoWriMo. It doesn't matter if you need these scenes or not. It's your word count that matters. It is Quantity, not Quality we want during November. Quality is for the editing process in December.

Now, gag your internal Editor and prepare to Write Your Novel!

Do you have any tricks you use to keep you writing? Share in the comments below.